Lagos: Go to school, learn to surf and learn more about ocean literacy

Project integrates sports training and environmental component sessions promoting Ocean literacy

Students of the 4th year of the 1st cycle of the Municipality of Lagos have participated, in the last two years and «despite all the restrictions and limitations», in the Surf Awareness sessions, provided by the project “Ver para Querer”, promoted by Living Science Center of Lagos, with the Surf Sports Training Center (CFD) of the School Sports of the Gil Eanes School Group as a partner.

The project aims to develop actions that foster positive relationships with the marine and coastal environment. «More than a simple Surf lesson, this inclusive activity aimed to raise awareness of the preservation of marine ecosystems», explains CCV Lagos.

«Surfing and wave sports have assumed a growing importance in society, contributing to the dissemination of healthy lifestyles, to the diversification of the sports offer and as a factor of economic development», adds that structure.

School Sports included Surf in its structure, as a sport, through the formation of groups/teams and Sports Training Centres.

 

The Surfing Sports Training Center of School Sports of the Gil Eanes School Group has the main objective of «fostering the practice of nautical sports, namely sliding sports, in the context of the school».

 

«In addition to the obvious sports offer, it includes sessions with an environmental component that promote Ocean literacy. The activities materialize the articulation of contents and motivate students to real learning, emphasizing the importance of the Ocean and exposing the threats it currently faces», explains Miguel Figueiredo, CFD Coordinator.

Prioritizing the first cycle of schooling in its activities, the Gil Eanes School Grouping Center promotes «vertical articulation, the integration of students who will accompany us throughout their school career and who, consequently, will integrate the other components of the project, namely regular training activities, carried out through the School Sports surf groups/team», he adds.

It is the way to develop in students «an environmental awareness» and to enhance «not only their physical and athletic aspects, but also their social and civic training», says Miguel Figueiredo.

 

 

Sessions are held in two moments. A first approach takes place in the classroom, to introduce the subject and with a strong awareness component for the preservation of the marine environment.

The second moment takes place on the beach of Porto Mós.

CCV Lagos emphasizes that «this is only possible with the support of the Municipality of Lagos, which provides transport for students to the beach, and with the support of Apartamentos Magnolia, which provide a space to house all the necessary equipment for classes and also provide the ultimate fun moment in the hotel pool».

All 1st cycle schools and teachers join this Project with great enthusiasm.

Marta Zilhão, coordinator of Escola Básica Nº1 – Bairro Operário and also a partner in this Project, reports that, «for our children, it is a privilege to have the opportunity to experience this sporting activity that contributes not only to their physical and psychological development, but which also promotes greater awareness of environmental issues, through greater knowledge about the oceans and the threats that some human activities pose to their balance and to the livelihood of many species that inhabit them».

«As Lagos is a city by the sea, interaction with the maritime environment is particularly important for our children, who have a close relationship with the sea, with the satisfaction and enthusiasm with which the students joined this project being notorious. he is greatly cherished by the School», adds Marta Zilhão.

Ângela Ferreira, coordinator of Escola Básica do 1º ciclo de Santa Maria, also talks about the partnership with the Ver Para Querer Project: «in a city that has its eyes on the sea, it is with great enthusiasm that our students participate in this sporting activity , which greatly contributes to their physical and emotional well-being».

«This practice develops respect for the Oceans, in an awareness of their main threats, encouraging responsible attitudes to protect their resources», adds Ângela Ferreira.

This year, “Ver para Querer” went further and established a collaboration with the “Blue Mind” project, also funded by the same mechanism (Blue Growth program of the EEA Grants).

Collaboration with the “Blue Mind – Go Deeper” project allowed a group of students from different levels of education at the Gil Eanes School Group to “develop a set of skills through the achievement of the programme's objectives: to ensure that nautical sports in a context schools in Portugal can be equipped with two essential tools, the creation of value and the sustainable growth of the blue economy. These tools, sustainability factors, are safety and blue ethics».

In this sense, the project was organized according to these two areas of action, creating an integrated offer of added value to water sports in a school environment, with a view to «training young people, agents and educators for the main challenges and opportunities of Education in a Blue Economy , which is based on a Blue Ethics, built in Blue Schools, promoted by Blue Minds», points out CCV Lagos.

 

 

The partnership was operationalized in three stages: the first, in which 69 students and eight teachers were involved, took place during the month of November, and consisted of a plenary session with students from different levels of education subordinated to the values ​​of ethics and safety in an aquatic environment.

The second stage, with 15 students and four teachers, included a training session on apnea techniques and pool safety, followed by an outing to the sea to apply the learning developed.

Finally, two CFD/EA students and two professors had the opportunity to apply the knowledge acquired during a stay on the island of S. Jorge, in the Azores, together with the partners of the “Blue Mind” project and with the collaboration of other students. selected from other schools in the rest of the country.

«It is these moments of joy, fun and emotion that make this activity a success, but above all it is moments like these that allow for the creation of bonds and openness for the transmission of knowledge about the sea, the oceans and the need to preserve these ecosystems. That is, to contribute to increasing ocean literacy and to the practice of sports linked to the Sea», underlines CCV Lagos.

Luís Azevedo Rodrigues, executive director of the Lagos Living Science Center which is the promoter of this project, believes that «the implementation of this Project, with this and other activities, will make us all care and strive to preserve what we know and for which we have empathy».

For this reason, he adds, «the Ver para Querer project will continue to be a vehicle for transmitting knowledge that aims to increase literacy in the Oceans and which, in turn, encourages its preservation».

The Ver para Querer project is funded through the Blue Growth Program for EEA Grants, a mechanism through which Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway financially support Portugal as a Member State of the European Union.

The Centro Ciência Viva de Lagos is the promoter of the Project and has partners in the Basic Schools of Bairro Operário and Santa Maria from the Júlio Dantas School Grouping, and the Sports Training Center (CFD) of Surf from School Sports, from the Grouping of Gil Eanes Schools.

 

 



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